The present invention relates generally to the field of communication systems, and more particularly to filtering video for video telephony and video conferencing.
The use of video conferencing or telephony, which allows remote parties to both see and hear one another, is becoming increasingly popular. Video conferencing is the conduct of a video conference among a plurality of participants at two or more locations via one or more communication networks. A video conference provides simultaneous multi-way video and audio transmissions between the locations, thus enabling the participants to communicate with each other, both audibly and visually, in real time, even when the participants are remotely located with respect to one another. Accordingly, video conferencing allows parties to communicate without requiring lengthy and expensive travel. In this regard, a video conference is a specific form of video telephony.
Modern communication devices are growing increasingly complex. Devices such as cell phones and laptop computers now often are equipped with cameras, microphones, and other sensors. Depending on the context of a communication (e.g. where the person using the device is located and to whom they are communicating, the date and time of day, among possible factors), it may not always be advantageous to communicate information collected by the device in its entirety, and/or unaltered.